Thunderbirds Are Go | First Look

Thunderbirds, the classic puppet action television show from the 1960’s is being revitalized for a new audience. After months of teasing ITV finally give us a look at the final product.

The original Thunderbirds television show was the brainchild of Gerry Anderson who made many puppet related shows such as Fireball XL5 and Captain Scarlett. He also developed live action shows UFO and Space:1999 among others.

Now ITV are bringing the Thunderbirds back to 2015 with a new look. Rather than using puppets, the characters this time around have all been created using CGI. The sets and backgrounds however have all been created for real in miniature by the special effects artists at WETA, the people behind all six Lord Of The Rings films.

Personally I’m glad they have retained the characteristics of the hardware with Thunderbird 2 always being a favorite of mine. However, I can’t get over the boy band look of the main characters, the Tracey brothers of International Rescue.

Despite not having yet aired, ITV have already ordered a second season. Season one will air April 15th in the UK on the children’s channel CITV.

About the author | John Abbitt

@UKFilmNerd | John loves the movies and he used to write for his own website, The Tydirium Hangar Bay, in the late 1990's. Whilst the web page idea became lost in the passages of time, John's love of film did not. Now he's back, writing for The Unheard Nerd.